Yesterday marked a sweet homecoming of sorts for me. After six months working at another tech start-up, I returned to RichRelevance, where I had worked previously for 2.5 years. Start-up junkies love where they work for all the usual reasons: the chance to work with insanely brilliant peers and learn from visionary leaders; the ability to quickly accomplish things without being mired in process and bureaucracy; the flexible, fun and quirky work environment.
But while many start-ups possess these core components, only a handful manage to distinguish themselves with that extra something that makes a workplace worth returning to. As cliché as it sounds, company culture is the invisible glue that bonds employees together. But culture extends far beyond a written manifesto that you wish for your employees to aspire to. Never successful as a top down initiative, it springs unprompted and perpetuates rapidly among peers, whether in accordance or not with a company’s desired values.
Now back at RichRelevance, I’m happy to find that the mutual respect, consideration and care that my fellow co-workers naturally share for one another continue to be mainstays of the {rr} culture—something that I experienced back in the early days, when I was employee #36. After my return was announced, I was showered with heartfelt communications; my first day on the job, I was greeted with “welcome back” hugs from friends old and new. I was informed that my favorite frozen yogurt place on Sansome had closed, and provided suggestions for new afternoon treat venues. My laptop, phone and an afternoon of meetings were set up for me so that I could have a productive and satisfying first day. Surrounded by the goofy humor and laughter of my colleagues, everything clicked easily back into place, as if I had never left.
As Day One of RichRelevance 2.0 drew to a close, I couldn’t help feeling a bit Dorothy-like—after she’s tapped her heels three times. There’s simply no place like home.
Chief Evangelist Jake Bailey discusses how to help the industry fully leverage data surrounding ad context and consumer behavior on iMedia Connection.
The birth of the internet shook the foundation of many markets, in particular our own media industry. Over the past decade and a half, online advertising has blossomed into the potential genius alternative to the more traditional media outlets — wooing media buyers with the promise of “real-time metrics” and the technology that allows better targeting capabilities. It’s all these promises of marketing capabilities that has propelled online media into securing a larger slice of overall budgets — stealing dollars from traditional media bucket. However, in order for online media to surpass traditional media budgets, the industry must further innovate in terms of scale and targeting. This will involve delivering value above and beyond what advertisers are currently capturing from TV.
One of the critical components that will enable the shift in budget allocation is in the one thing that makes online advertising so unique: the underlying power of ad-targeting data. As it currently stands, the digital industry is overrun with data: “Data, data everywhere, but no one has the means to truly leverage it.” The digital ad industry is still a ways off from being able to leverage “data potential” from ad context and consumer behavior.
Read the full article on iMedia Connection
RichRelevance’s Darren Hitchcock blogs on Econsultancy.
The importance of fast load times in an online retail environment has been proven time and time again. Online, a shopper’s time literally equates to money.
Now, the research from our recent mobile study shows that it’s a shopper’s time on tablets that should be the focus on your website optimisation initiatives.
In the UK, 82% of mobile purchases are made on the iPad.
Tablets and speed: the stats
This past March, Compuware surveyed shoppers and found that almost 70% of tablet users expect a website to load in two seconds or less. If your mobile site isn’t fast enough, your customers will move along (and quickly) to the next click.
According to the study, a bad web experience will drive 46% of tablet users to competitive websites and 33% are less likely to purchase from that company. Comparatively, a Strangeloop survey reveals that shoppers using a PC are a bit more patient, with the majority allowing a full three seconds before making the jump. A shocking 80% of those users, once they’ve abandoned the site, will not return.
Performance is also key when digging deeper into our mobile study. Not only is mobile responsible for over 10% of all online business; but the study also revealed that browsers spend more time on iPads with page views higher than any other channel.
Read the full article on eConsultancy
Chief Evangelist Jake Bailey talks retail targeting on iMedia Connection.
When the movie “Minority Report” was released in 2002, it was pure Hollywood that depicted a world where personalized screens would follow a shopper’s every move — whether walking through a mall or entering the local Gap store. Fast-forward 10 years, and this world of personalized screens is actually a reality driven by the sheer number of mobile devices consumers have access to today. This “ubiquity of screens” combined with the untethering of shopping from physical stores, has created a highly fragmented marketplace making it a greater challenge for brands to engage with consumers in the right context.
However, with change comes opportunity. A consumer’s shopping mode can be turned on at any moment, not just when they’re in the store or watching TV, but when they see something that piques their interest (think of the rapid rise of Pinterest) and want to explore or buy at that exact moment. The smartest brands are shifting their media investments to be in direct alignment with the shopping actions of the consumer by leveraging new and unique marketing channels that directly intersect with the path to purchase.
Read full iMedia article
Zillow just acquired RentJuice for 40 Million dollars. Cool!
What’s that got to do with RichRelevance? Ok so I co-founded another real-estate company, Redfin, but that seems pretty far afield to justify a blog post…
Well, there’s more! I met Dave Vivero, the CEO of RentJuice when he was still at HBS and “contemplating his next big thing,” so when he moved to San Francisco, it was an obvious opportunity to help him out—RichRelevance incubated the early RentJuice team until they got their first round of funding (should have taken some stock—darnit!). I even introduced them to one of their lead investors on that round.
This is one example of the opportunity for more developed startups to help accelerate the entrepreneurial ecosystem—one example of what I believe to be many opportunities. Sometimes this means opening up your offices to a young company, or offering up a resource where you have slack within your business. It could be as simple as letting someone borrow your graphics guy for a few hours, or brainstorm their next version of their product.
I’ve helped other companies similarly (GoodReads and Interactive Touch Books), and will continue to because we believe that this pay-it-forward approach is critical for a healthy ecosystem. In fact, as a part of the pay-it-forward cycle, we were also the benefactor of a similar sub-leasing favor thanks to Tod and team at BrightRoll, who leant us a hand and some space when our salaries were still paid in sandwiches and hugs. Good Karma from BrightRoll set a precedent for our company and we have made it a point to ALWAYS pay-it-forward.
So the next time someone asks you if you have office-space to share, even if it’s a janitor’s closet, understand that you may be acting as a catalyst for something much more significant. You may even play a part in the creation of the next Billion-dollar startup (there seems to be quite a few these days)—and even the future billionaire’s of the world need help in early days because real estate in SV is ridiculously expensive.
Just ask the guys at Zillow and RentJuice.